Remember in 2012 there were all these conspiracy theories going around about the end of the world. And that according to the Mayan calendar, 2012 would be the year of doom and gloom. The great apocalypse. We even made a huge blockbuster movie about it (complete with the standard America is the centre of the world narrative).

People had been stocking up on food and building underground shelters, just to prepare themselves to survive the apocalypse. Some even went as far as to imagine it would end up in a zombie apocalypse, stocking up on the gunnery as well (still not illegal). The world was prepared for the worst.

But nothing happened….yet.

Well it turns out, the Mayans might have made a typo. Because 2020, was THE YEAR OF THE RECKONING.

Welcome to 2020

MAN what a fuckin year it has been. What started off with Australian forest fires killing koala bears and Kobe Bryant dying, soon became a massive global pandemic that led to nationwide lockdowns and curfews, closure of all retail outlets restaurants and bars around the globe, complete travel bans between nations, hurricanes and earthquakes, riots and looting through the streets of America across every state, death of hundreds of thousands of people across the globe… AAARGH HOLD THE FUCK UP. TIME OUT!!!

And we are only halfway through. Exactly 50%.

It’s hard to even process and digest all that has been going on across the world. Not to help that the media is keen on constantly portraying the negatives and keeping people on the edge of their seats. You think the news is bad wait till you go on social media. Social media has always been a medium for people to scream for attention and get it whenever they wanted it. But with all that is going on around the globe, it has become harder and harder to get that attention. So instead of shutting the fuck up, people start to scream louder. Make their voices louder. Make their opinions wilder. Make their problems bigger. Cause how else can they compete against the attention that is given to the thousands of death and destruction across the globe??!!

And that started giving birth to some of the craziest and wildest conspiracy theories that you can imagine. People started believing that the global pandemic (CORONA) was actually an elaborate scheme by elites across the world to oppress the masses and buy back control of the free market. Some believed that the “virus” itself was not a virus but a genetic mutation caused by radiation from 5G mobile network towers. People actually started burning down mobile towers and destroying public and private property purely based on these unconfirmed theories.

You would think it would be the Trump supporters and Karens of the world that would be buying into such theories and telling their neighbours about it. BUT NO. You have highly educated individuals in fields of science, research and education who supported and backed such theories. Forget the rest I had friends of my age who were absolutely sold that the coronavirus was an elaborate hoax.

With all that insanity going about on one side, the world got shaken by another hit, this time one that was a lot closer to the hearts of the masses. George Floyd, an African American man, was brutally killed in the hands of a police officer, with video footage of him struggling to breath and needless to say, it spread like wildfire. Protests and outrage sparked across the nation, fighting for justice to be served.

What started off as peaceful protests soon became violent displays of frustration, with many rioting through the streets, looting various prominent supermarkets, leading to the good ol President declaring a war against the people.

As if we weren’t already in a crisis, shit just got way worse.

The #BlackLivesMatter movement took the world by storm, and protests were happening across the globe, not to mention every single state in America. The people wanted justice. And eventually justice was served in the form of arrest of the police officers involved in the killing of George Floyd. While it might have just been a move made to achieve peace with the masses, it was a positive signal that there was action taken.

Chaos outside, chaos inside

Whilst all of this was going about around the globe, I have been staying at home (mostly cause I’m antisocial, but also cause the government told me to) for the past few months, barely leaving the house once or twice a week for some exercise and fresh air.

Thankfully the company I was working at had very flexible work arrangements, and we had commenced working from home from as early as February this year. Many companies have had zero infrastructure or arrangements for a work from home setup and that made it impossible for them to transition given the necessity. Soon enough, even schools started closing down and moving towards a home-based learning model, giving their parents extra worries amidst their own transitioning work arrangements.

It was a period of intense deep structural and cultural changes. People were forced to stay at home, and some were not adept to that kind of change. My own father, refused to go a day without leaving the house. He would find reasons like going to the market, or the bank, needing to run errands or buy groceries, or simply “exercise” (never seen him exercise in years) just to get out of the house.

While the idea of staying at home is not that bad, not having the option of going out is the issue. Staying at home 24/7 meant a great deal of change to most people. Many, without realising, have found comfort and escape in going out to various places on a day to day basis. We have had an abundance of options for food, shopping, leisure and recreation. But having those options stripped away, people found themselves having to deal with some real issues that have been swept under the carpet for eons.

Who has time to introspect and deal with issues though… Let’s make some dalgona coffee instead (still have no idea wtf that is). Or how about some Zoom yoga! Hold on let’s get on Houseparty first! Time to finally start learning to play the ukelele and posting it on TikTok. Oh there is a new show on Netflix about a gay man with 180 pet tigers, you NEED TO WATCH IT!!!

All sorts of oddly creative trends started popping up all over, just to deal with the “boredom” of having to stay at home. Social media became the only source of social contact. Zoom became a household necessity. And toilet paper became a scarcity.

Where do we go now?

While it is only halfway through the year, and most of the year has already been spent sitting home on Netflix, there seems to be hope.

Many countries have started lifting their lockdowns, and have returned to normal operations, with stores and restaurants finally being able to open physically. Schools have also started to open up, while most still try to enforce safe distancing measures quite strictly.

Singapore has been doing quite a splendid job in flattening the curve in a short period of time, and setting up infrastructure and technology to aid in further contact tracing once everything has been opened up. The government has provided masks for all individuals and made it compulsory to wear masks wherever you go. All malls, restaurants and physical outlets now have a check-in check-out system that enables tracking of the individuals there at any point of time. Soon enough, there are plans to rollout a physical device that all individuals will need to wear, that can easily detect and trace the individuals that have come in close contact with you, and be able to warn individuals if anyone were to get the virus.

Airlines are expecting to resume operations towards the end of the year, and people have already started booking flights for their long needed vacation.

While most of this is in the hopes that the virus should not make a comeback, we are still in the process of finding a vaccine that can help ensure that things can truly start returning to normal.

In the time being, we have to adapt to this “new normal” and figure out ways of overcoming the struggles through our daily lives.

There is much more to write and talk about and I could go on and on. But let me end this here, on the note that maybe in some ways, the world needed this. We needed this hard brake during the constant acceleration over the last couple of decades, so that we can recalibrate and shift gears into moving forward more sustainably. I needed this, personally, to be able to sit with myself and rediscover what were my priorities. I might write another post about my personal journey through this, but I feel I haven’t hit any significant milestone yet to document it. Might just write during the usual birthday reflections. Either way, I am glad to be on this journey right now, and I am feeling a sense of optimism and hope despite the bleakness and uncertainty of the foreseeable future.

Keep glitching.